blender 2.78-RC1 is out what is the major difference between these two linux versions?
The difference is the version of the GNU "libc" it is linked against. There is no benefit to one or the other -- different versions of Linux use different versions of "libc". Just pick the one with the latest "libc", in this case blender-2.78-rc1-linux-glibc219-x86_64.tar.bz2. It'll most likely work. If it doesn't, try the other one.

Really, there is no difference between the two, except one will work on your system, and the other might not.